About 33,000 North Korean defectors live in South Korea. (Reuters)
Seoul:
One day after North Korea suspended direct lines of communication with South Korea about defectors who send propaganda and contraband to the North, South Korea said it would take legal action against two organizations that carry out such operations.
North Korea is enraged when defectors from the South send equipment such as anti-North leaflets and rice – usually by balloon over the heavily fortified border or in bottles by sea – and its media have denounced the latter days the “mongrel dogs” who do it.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, recently called the defectors “human scum short of wild animals” and said North Korea would cut communication with South Korea because of his failure to stop them.
South Korea, which is trying to improve ties with the North, said on Wednesday that two defector-led groups, the Kuensaem Education Center and Fighters for a Free North Korea, had violated the law on exchange and cooperation inter-Korean by sending leaflets, as well as supplies such as rice and medicines.
The two defector groups “have created tensions between the two Koreas and have endangered the lives and security of residents of the border area,” said spokesman for the South Unification Ministry Yoh Sang- key.
A defector, Park Sang-hak, who left North Korea in 2000 and leads fighters for Free North Korea, has been sending out leaflets about once a month for the past 15 years.
“You can never buy peace with flattery and begging,” he said of the South Korean government’s response to North Korean critics.
About 33,000 North Korean defectors live in South Korea.
As part of efforts to improve ties with the North, the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in sought to discourage leaflet and rice campaigns, and defectors complained of pressure to avoid criticism from North Korea.
Activists were intercepted by residents on Monday when they attempted to send plastic bottles stuffed with rice by dropping them at sea.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
